Mapping a Life Together Through Movies

Madeline Claire Whittle and Charles Norton Bramesco first hit it off over a horror movie — not as theatergoers, but as judges serving on a panel at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival in October 2019.

Ms. Whittle, an assistant programmer for Film at Lincoln Center, and Mr. Bramesco, a freelance film and television critic, had followed each other on social media for a while and met briefly at film events, but hadn’t talked much until then. In discussions about the festival’s films, “Charles and I tended to align in our opinions,” Ms. Whittle, 33, said. They both liked “Swallow,” a film about a woman who develops a compulsion to eat inedible objects.

By the festival’s end, “Swallow” had multiple awards, and Ms. Whittle had a crush.

Weeks later, Ms. Whittle, who goes by Maddie, sent Mr. Bramesco, 30, a message asking if he’d want to go out sometime. He suggested a few days later. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, they met for their first date at a cocktail bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Mr. Bramesco wore his lucky green shirt, and they talked about family and film over jazz and Lambrusco wine.

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“I was surprised by how quickly we got into really substantive things,” Mr. Bramesco said. Ms. Whittle had read his work — he has written for The Guardian, New York Magazine and The New York Times, among other publications — and wanted to hear about his experience as a writer. He knew the festivals she worked on and had attended retrospectives she organized.

They continued to date, showing each other their favorite films and falling more in love with each other in the process. Mr. Bramesco first knew he loved Ms. Whittle when she showed him “Danny Deckchair,” a comedy inspired by a true story, in which a man ties a bunch of balloons to a deck chair and floats across Australia. Mr. Bramesco thought, “I want to be with this woman forever.”

Then, about three months into their relationship came the start of the pandemic. Ms. Whittle moved into Mr. Bramesco’s apartment, which he shared with a roommate, for a two-week period that turned into a year. During lockdown, they watched horror franchises that Ms. Whittle had not yet seen, like “Saw,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Final Destination.”